Review: Arby's King's Hawai'ian Roast Beef & Swiss

I think I’ve had Arby’s no more than twice in my life. Part of the reason is because I have never lived near one. Also I’ve just never thought, ‘Wow, that [insert Arby’s menu item] sounds fantastic and I need to drive out of my way to have it.’ The only time I ever hear about it is through advertisements. People must eat there or else it wouldn’t exist, but Arby’s just doesn’t get much hype.

With that being said, I have nothing against Arby’s. For the most part, through reviews I’ve read, it would seem some of their stuff is pretty high quality. Now the general feeling is also that it seems to be somewhat spendy, but at least no one’s bashing their food. I’ve read good things about the turkey items, curly fries, and jamocha shake, among others. I’ve even received coupon sheets in the mail on occasion, and I love me some good coups. Still, none of that has compelled me to give it a try.

That is, until Arby’s sent me a couple of gift cards to try the new King’s Hawai’ian Roast Beef and Swiss. If you don’t know about King’s Hawai’ian rolls, you’re missing out. They’re sweet, buttery, fluffy and yet somehow dense…I could go on. They are perfect for slider-sized sandwiches (ham, mayo and mustard is my favorite), or just buttered. They’re even good plain. Of course, when I heard about the new sandwich I thought it sounded pretty good, but I wasn’t planning to try it until they offered to give me one for free. Who’s poor and fat and thus can’t pass up a free sammy? That would be this guy.

There are two varieties of the new King’s Hawai’ian sandwich. The first one just has roast beef and goes for $3.99 in my area. The Roast Beef and Swiss version has, you guessed it, roast beef and Swiss, as well as pickles and “creamy Dijon sauce.” It will set you back $4.59. I went for a Roast Beef and Swiss combo with a side and a drink for $6.59.

My first mistake was getting Arby’s new House Made Chips as my side. I saw them on the menu as I was ordering and got them since they’re new-ish. They’re kettle chips with Arby’s Sauce seasoning, and they weren’t good at all. They were pretty crunchy, but the seasoning was unbearable. It was a tomato and vinegar type powder with some paprika and other spices, but it was SO DAMN TANGY. More tang than an Arizona State frat party. Professional athletes think these chips have too much tang. Bill Clinton couldn’t stand the amount of tang in these chips. Even Hugh Hefner ate them and said, “Dude, these chips have more tang than I would ever know what to do with.” So yeah, they’re pretty tangy. I think they should have an option of getting them with just salt instead of Arby’s Sauce seasoning.

Anyways, enough talk about tang. Okay, one more thing: growing boys need tang!

Now, let’s get to the sandwich! The first thing I noticed about it was the size: holy balls, there is a ton of roast beef. It must weigh at least a 1/2 pound. It barely fit inside the sandwich box. The bun is pretty big as well, and toasted, which is always a plus. There were three pickle chips and plenty of Dijon on both sides of the bun, another plus.

So I dug in and in an unsurprising development, roast beef was the main flavor going on here. There’s not much to say about the roast beef; it was beefy. And salty. The sweet King’s Hawai’ian bun was a perfect counter to the salty beef and held everything together pretty well. Being a huge proponent of mustard on all sandwiches, I really liked the Dijon sauce. It had a little bit of a honey mustard taste to it (honey mustard is the one variety I don’t care for), but I didn’t mind. As for the pickles, they were quite good as far as pickles go; not really briny and pretty fresh. They weren’t overpowering, which is good since I’m not a huge pickle fan (no pun intended, although it’s true no matter which way you take it).

The one ingredient that got lost in the mix was the Swiss cheese. It provided no flavor whatsoever. There was a little creaminess as I got to the middle, but I just think the size of the sandwich overwhelmed the cheese. Another slice probably would have created a better beef:cheese ratio.

In all, the King’s Hawai’ian Roast Beef and Swiss is a definite winner. Other than the cheese which got lost in the mix, I have nary a bad word to say about it. The $4.59 price tag may seem like a lot, but let me assure you that the size of the sandwich more than justifies that price. My appetite is just average (maybe even below) for a 22-year-old male, which is to say above average for normal human standards. I can put away 3 McDonald’s value menu sandwiches, no problem. But I ate just over half of this bad boy before I could take no more.

At any rate, I highly recommend the King’s Hawai’ian Roast Beef and Swiss. It’s huge and delicious. Just don’t make the same mistake I did with the chips. Get curly fries. GET CURLY FRIES. I’M WARNING YOU. The chips…too much tang even for Wilt Chamberlain.